Soon, Karon was publishing weekly installments about Father Tim in her local newspaper, The Blowing Rocket, which saw its circulation double as a result. She grew curious about him, and started writing. After struggling-and failing-to get a novel underway, Karon awoke one night with a mental image of an Episcopal priest walking down a village street. At the age of 50, she left her career in advertising and moved to Blowing Rock, North Carolina, to pursue that dream. While there, she won the prestigious Stephen Kelly Award, with which the Magazine Publishers of America honor the year's best print campaign.ĭuring her years in advertising, Karon kept alive her childhood ambition to be an author. In time, she became a creative vice president at the high-profile McKinney & Silver, in Raleigh. Karon went on to have a highly successful career in the field, winning awards for ad agencies from Charlotte to San Francisco. She advanced in the company after leaving samples of her writing on the desk of her boss, who eventually noticed her talent. Karon married as a teenager and had a daughter, Candace.Īt 18, Karon began working as a receptionist for a Charlotte, N.C. She penned her first novel when she was 10 years old, the same year she won a short-story contest organized by the local high school. Karon knew at a very early age that she wanted to be a writer. And, when the rector goes on a camping trip with the church youth group, he's forced to confront the toughest challenge of all - his own fears.īorn Janice Meredith Wilson in 1937, Jan Karon was raised on a farm near Lenoir, North Carolina. Then, the poverty and violence of an area known as the Creek comes knocking at the rectory door.Clearly, being at home in Mitford has its challenges.

How will they keep his sofa-sized dog at a safe distance from her arrogant, albeit famous, cat? Can he learn to love the old-Italian-villa look his wife is bent on giving the rectory?These concerns pale, however, beside the growing pains of Dooley Barlowe, the thrown-away boy whom the rector loves as his own son. He's also married to Cynthia, his vivacious and talented neighbor.Suddenly, the routine existence of a sixtysomething bachelor is out the window. And absolutely hilarious.In this irresistible third book of The Mitford Years series, Father Timothy Kavanagh is married to more than his lovable and eccentric Episcopal parishioners. In Mitford, a village nestled in the hills of North Carolina, she shows us small-town life for what it really is: completely engrossing.

Jan Karon has created a town where we feel wonderfully at home.

These high green hills by jan karon